Traditionally, gaming systems accommodated a limited number of players, such as 1-4 players. A recent trend in gaming systems is to provide capabilities to facilitate gaming among multiple players over a network, such as Internet-based online gaming. These online gaming systems allow players to compete with other players, regardless of their geographic location.
Network-based or online gaming can be implemented in a centralized-server approach or a peer-to-peer approach. In the centralized-server approach, gaming systems connect to one or more centralized servers and interact with one another via the centralized server(s). In the peer-to-peer approach, gaming systems connect to one another and interact with one another directly. However, even in the peer-to-peer approach, a centralized server(s) may be employed to assist in the communication.
Certain game players attempt to cheat in multi-player gaming situations by, for example, modifying their copy of the game application such that the game application can exceed the normal operating characteristics of the game. For example, a character in the game may be made faster or may cheat by “looking” through opaque walls or objects. Cheating affects other game participants by reducing the entertainment they derive from the game application and affects the game developer that produced the game by potentially damaging the reputation of the game and possibly decreasing sales of the game.
Accordingly, it is desirable to identify and prevent such cheating such that all game participants are competing in a fair game.